C L A S S I C A L M U S I C D A I L Y An English Requiem — Issue 118, 1 February 2018 CD SPOTLIGHT — BRAHMS IN LONDON Gerald Fenech: 'One of Brahms' most popular works and undoubtedly his greatest choral piece is Ein deutsches Requiem. Premiered in its complete seven movements on 18 February 1869 in Leipzig, the Requiem was a great success despite some initial critical reservations. 'The work was soon enthusiastically sought out by choral societies all over Europe not least in Britain, where choral singing is regarded as the lifeblood of the nation. Indeed, there are records of its being performed some thirty times between the full Leipzig premiere and the 1873 Philharmonic Society performance. But, oddly enough, the Philarmonic's was not the first English performance. This took place on 7 July 1871 in a private performance in London with reduced forces using Brahms' four-handed arrangement instead of an orchestra. The records show the choir was of about thirty voices and the piano duettists were the veteran English composer Cipriani Potter and Kate Loder, a prominent pianist at the Royal Academy of Music. This version subsequently became known as the "London Version" and the composer and scholar George Alexander Macfarren, in his notes to the Philarmonic's performance of 2 April 1873, dubbed the work "An English Requiem".' (Johannes Brahms: An English Requiem, Delphian DCD34195) Gerald also listens to Ástor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer's María de Buenos Aires (Delphian DCD34186) and to Jorge Federico Osorio — Final Thoughts (Cedille CDR 90000 171). Geoff Pearce: 'On this disc are my favourite Shostakovich String Quartets. (I have them all on a fabulous set, quite a few years old now, with the esteemed Borodin Quartet.) The performers here truly understand this music and play with great precision, feeling and empathy, and I enjoyed this performance very much. 'The seventh string quartet, dedicated to Shostakovich's first wife, is quite a tempestuous work and goes through a large range of emotions. It is also the shortest of the three quartets here. The first movement opens happily enough with a jaunty little tune, but contains unsettling little outbursts. 'The second movement, brief and slow, is quite unusual with a sorrowful melody over a busier accompaniment. This is quite disturbing and one can sense the underlying unease. 'The last movement, the longest of them all, is somewhat manic and taut. The performers are on their mettle, and the work is gripping in intensity. There is some respite in the second section where things slow down, but the melody is unsettling, with strange short interjections from the instruments not playing the melody.' (Altius Quartet — Shostakovich: String Quartets 7, 8 and 9, Navona NV 6125) Geoff also listens to Genesis — Martin Georgiev Symphonic Works (ICSM Records ICSM 010) and to Barbara Harbach — Orchestral Music III (MSR Classics MS 1614). Roderic Dunnett: 'Vítězslav Novák (1870-1949) was one of the most significant figures of Czech music at the end of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. He thus belongs to the group of major figures — Fibich, Foerster, Ostrčil and of course Janáček — who took over from or indeed allied themselves with Dvořák, furthering the cause of folk idioms and developing their own individual brand of evolving Romanticism. 'Novák was in fact a student in Dvořák's composition class, from which he learned much. But his growing allegiance, after folk music, was to post-Romanticism: akin to that wide- ranging body of composers, French but especially German and Polish, who emerged in the post-Wagner era with an array of distinctive voices, characterised by sumptuous chordings, scrumptious orchestral colourings and heavily laden counterpoint which would characterise not only Strauss, to whom Novák became devoted after hearing Salome in 1906, but Schreker, Franz Schmidt, Szymanowski, Karłowicz and many others. 'Novák's operas, especially Karlstijn and Lucerna (The Lantern, which has been recorded on Supraphon with the legendary Karel Berman and Eva Děpoltová), even if they did not enjoy early approval, are worth an acquaintance. 'The three works on this disc — effectively symphonic poems — reveal just how beguiling a composer Novák had become by his early to mid-thirties. The music is lush, sparkling, adventurous, hectic and beguiling by turns. All this is captured with flair and sensitivity by the Buffalo Philharmonic, from New York State, under its current Music Director JoAnn Falletta, who has a reputation for exploring, as here, composers at the side of the repertoire, including the Austrian Marcel Tyberg (1893-1944), like Novák a neoromantic, and one of those who perished at Auschwitz; Suk; Dohnányi (including two violin concertos); Moeran; Respighi; and many American composers, stretching from John Knowles Paine (1839-1906) to Corigliano and black American composer Adolphus Hailstork in her many recordings for Naxos.' (Vítezslav Novák: In the Tatra Mountains, Naxos 8.573683) Roderic also listens to Carl Friedrich Abel: Symphonies Op 7 (cpo 777 993-2) and to Victoria de los Ángeles — Fauré, Debussy, Ravel (Praga Digitals PRD DSD 350 137). We also continue to publish, posthumously, the CD reviews of Howard Smith: this month Rachel Barton Pine — Beethoven and Clement Violin Concertos (Cedille CDR 90000 106), Classical Ballads — Wilhelm Pfeiffer and Fabricio Moreira (the noeck records CD 2007) and Archangel! Corelli Opus 5 — Judith Aller (USA Music Group USACD-1010). Browse our latest CD reviews ... All our CD reviews are illustrated with sound samples, usually chosen by the author of each review. If you enjoy listening to these sound samples, you can often hear an extra sample on the 'CD information page' linked from the bottom of each review. An alternative way to reach these CD information pages is via our New Releases section, where you can also see information about recent CDs which haven't yet been reviewed, and follow the review cycle process for any particular CD. ENSEMBLE — THE ROMANTIC CONNECTION Giuseppe Pennisi: 'Would French Romantic music and British rock make a good blend for an evening at the opera? Many opera goers and ballet fans would doubt it. A proverb says: "try before reaching a conclusion or formulating a judgement". The mix can be effective, and charming, if the bridge linking the two components is the view of a good ballet danced by a top-notch company. This was the conclusion reached on 28 January 2018 by the audience of the second new production of the ballet season of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. I was one of them. 'Under the title Soirée Française, two very different ballets were performed. Firstly, a Serge Lifar ballet titled Suite en Blanc, on the music of Édouard Lalo. Following this was the Pink Floyd Ballet, created by Roland Petit on the basis of a number of selected songs by the well known "progressive rock" group. The program's two elements were both contrasting and complementary. They were contrasting because Lalo's delicate and elegant French Romantic music sounds quite different to Pink Floyd's philosophical rock. The first part had musical support from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Orchestra conducted by Luigi Bonini; the music score of the second part was a taped selection of Pink Floyd songs.' Alessio Rezza in Roland Petit's Pink Floyd Ballet at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2018 Yasuko Kageyama Giuseppe also listens to Rossini's William Tell, Verdi's I Masnadieri, Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, music by Kodály, Philip Glass, Bruckner and Giacinto Scelsi, and to Bernardo Pasquini's dramatic passion La Sete di Cristo: 'On 25 January 2018, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana — a private society of music lovers created in 1813 — opened, within its 2017-2018 season, a series of concerts in the Teatro Argentina, a gem of a theatre which enchanted Stendhal during his travels in Italy and where Gioacchino Rossini premiered his Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 1813. 'The series opened with La Sete di Cristo (Christ's Thirst) by Bernardo Pasquini, on a libretto by Nicolò Minato. It is a two part oratorio on the Crucifixion, premiered in 1689. Pasquini was a prominent musician of the Roman baroque school. He had the strong support of Christine, Queen of Sweden after her conversion to the Roman Catholic Religion and during her exile in Rome. He was also highly considered by prominent Church personalities like Pietro Cardinal Ottoboni. He composed eighteen operas and a large number of oratorios as well as instrumental music. He was the leader of a musicians' club where younger members were, among others, Alessandro Stradella, Alessandro Scarlatti and Archangelo Corelli. Georg Friedrich Händel was one of his followers in the first period of his career. Concerto Romano on the stage at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on 25 January 2018. Photo © 2018 Max Pucciariello 'La Sete di Cristo is a very dramatic oratorio. It is divided into two parts, with a total time of about a hour and a half. The ensemble is composed of nine instrumentalists. There are four singers in very well-defined roles: The Virgin Mary, St John, Joseph of Arimathea and Holy Nicodemo. There is action: in the first part, the singers are divided into two pairs. In the second, they become a small chorus. Each of them has a strong personality, well depicted by the arias and the music.' Mike Wheeler listens to a school production of Bizet's Carmen and is impressed by a piano recital by Colin Stone, and by Mark Elder and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain: 'On paper it looked rather a risky programme — three pieces, all beginning quietly, and two of them ending quietly as well.